Movie Adaptation Review: Insurgent

I watched Insurgent last Friday on the 20th, the day after the movie was released in my country; and I experienced something new in the movie theater: a blackout. Which was funny but totally annoying at the same time, because it happened during the climax of the movie! We had to wait for several minutes before the movie starts again. Anyways, it was really funny to experience blackout in the theater for the first time. Now back to the movie. To be honest, I started watching it without any sort of expectation because: 1) my memory about Insurgent is already quite vague, 2) judging from the trailers, the movie is going to change a lot of things. Here's my non-spoiling review for the movie adaptation of Insurgent (might have a slight spoiler if you haven't read the book/watched the previous movie).

Continuing from the Divergent movie, Tris, Four, and the few people who were with them (including Peter, Caleb, and Marcus) are on the run—because Jeanine Matthews implied that they were the ones who destroyed Abnegation and killed a lot of people. Their first refuge is Amity, the faction of peace and joy. However it doesn't last very long because Jeanine sent people looking for people who are Divergent with a newly invented tool. When Tris and Four barely escaped the danger, they came across the Factionless—where Four's real name, Tobias Eaton, is a very powerful name. Even though they were able to hide for a while, they couldn't keep running away from Jeanine forever. In the end, Tris was forced to turn herself in, because Jeanine needs a pure Divergent to open a box—that contains a message from the city's founders.

"We're good, you and me. I know nothing else is, but we are."

So....even though I said my memory about the book is vague, I'm pretty sure the book storyline doesn't really go that way. The first major difference is the existence of this 'box', that Jeanine wanted to open. In the book, there's indeed an 'information' that Tris' parents died protecting—but it wasn't Jeanine who wanted to open it. As for the minor changes, one that I realized early on is Tris' trauma over killing her friend, Will. In the book, she had a trauma of holding a gun and shooting it—while in the movie she's just overwhelmed with guilt and felt like everyone around her will die, sooner or later. There are of course other changes that makes watching the movie a different experience than reading the book. I think the movie is trying to show more action stuff on screen

First of all, I need to express how I can't really feel the chemistry between Tris and Four whenever Caleb is around, because I'm always reminded of Augustus Waters from TFIOS. LOL. Plus Peter, who played opposite Shailene Woodley in Spectacular Now. Anyways, I'm not really digging Tris' character in this movie—I'm not really sure for what reason, but I just felt that way as I'm watching the movie. I still really like Theo James' portrayal of Four in this movie though, his gestures and expression made me feel that he really care for Tris. It's sad though because the movie didn't include Marcus Eaton in the storyline, because I feel like that will build Four's character a lot more.

As for the other characters, sadly I'm quite annoyed by Ansel Elgort's presence; but I guess he succeeded in making Caleb's character annoying. Because I hated his character until the end. I'll let Ansel stay as Augustus forever in my heart. Another character that took me by surprise was Evelyn Eaton, played by Naomi Watts. Why I was surprised? Because she's too pretty and looked to young for that role! Even though after I did some research, she's almost 50! Anyways, Four looked older than her in this movie, and that felt weird.

And I was really sad by the sudden arrival of Uriah, played by Keiynan Lonsdale ㅠㅠ Not because I was disappointed by the cast, but because his personality was not displayed AT ALL in the movie. He's my favorite character from the book, so I'm really sad with this lame portrayal of him. I wish he got more important dialogue and screen time :( Oh, and Kate Winslet still nailed it as Jeanine Matthews, btw. Such a badass character.

As I've said earlier, the movie changed a lot of things, but it also kept some important elements of the whole series. Unfortunately, because some of those changes, the movie wasn't as emotional as I hoped it would be. For example, the part where Tris turned herself in and Four got captured trying to rescue her; this was really heartbreaking in the book. But I felt nothing while watching it in the movie. And also when Tris' friends was controlled by Jeanine to kill themselves was supposed to be heart-wrenching—because in the book I knew those minor characters quite well. So that was quite disappointing.

My favorite scene will have to be the simulation from the 'box', because it's the movie climax and it's when the movie gets a lot more interesting. A lot of computer graphics and special effects on this part, which is really cool—even though the slow-motion could be annoying at times; but it's probably for the people who watched it in 3D. The ending was pretty much similar to how it was in the book; it ended after the founder's message was transmitted to all the factions—and people are on their way towards the next journey.

Even though I have my disappointments towards the movie, I'm still enjoying it from start to finish. For those of you who only watched the movie, you might not have any problem watching this sequel. However, if you read the books first like I did, I guess you just have to see the movie for yourself to know how you feel about it. With all the changes they're making in this movie, is there a chance they're going to change the ending of Allegiant? ㅋㅋㅋ Allegiant: Part 1 is scheduled to premiere in 2016, and I hope it won't be disappointing. Have you watched Insurgent? What do you think about the movie? Share your thoughts about it in the comments below ;)

6 comments:

In my city, I often experience black out while in the theater. It's such a bad annyoing for sure! Lucky you just had it once XD haha~Well, I've watched divergent and haven't seen the sequel. So, I will put it on list :) Thanks for the review^^

Followers

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”― Stephen King